How to Enjoy SXSW 2013 from Your Couch

In the twenty-six years since the first South by Southwest, the festival's grown and changed vastly, in a number of different ways. First it became a required annual must-do for every sort of music-industry professional, the one time each year that pretty much every band, booking agent, A&R, and music journalist were in the same place at the same time to make deals and news happen. After that it began attracting a massive amount of amateur music fans who realized that for the cost of a festival wristband they could binge on live music for a week, and the official festival itself, with its slightly academic panel discussions and live interviews with important artists, started to become overshadowed by the hundreds upon hundreds of unofficial events and parties thrown by people and corporate entities without even a nominal attachment to the music biz. (When Rachel Ray launched her own SXSW event in 2008, a lot of people wondered if the festival had jumped the shark.)

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With civilians and professionals alike, there are some people who thrive on the chaotic energy of the seeming millions of visitors packed into the tiny city and the overwhelming amount of performances happening around the clock, and others who find it miserably exhausting. While the professionals are often required by their jobs to be down there, the casual music fan has an increasing number of options for following the fest without constantly dodging the elbows of small-town booking agents who've spent the day at open bars.

The official SXSW site is probably the single most useful resource for the remote attendee. Its main music page offers news from the festival, articles on featured performers, and live streams of official events. If you're the armchair A&R type who's interested in discovering new artists, the SXSWfm page streams music from artists who are officially part of the festival. (With the vast number of unofficial events that go on now, a lot of artists don't even bother signing up with the festival proper.)

It's also becoming increasingly common for SXSW events to be streamed live, including some people who are attending in the flesh will be fighting to get into. The Fader Fort, curated by the staff of music-trend bible Fader magazine, has over the years hosted a legion of artists who turned out to be the Next Big Thing (and more than a few Already Big Things), and it's become one of the most sought-after RSVPs of the festival. The live broadcast of this year's event starts Wednesday afternoon and ends Saturday night, and will include sets by hyped-up newcomers like Sky Ferreira and Trinidad James as well as veteran acts like the Afghan Whigs and Odd Future's Earl Sweatshirt, who by SXSW standards is almost old-school.

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One of the other more highly anticipated events going on this week is the Ray-Ban x Boiler Room series, which regularly webcasts performances by musicians and DJs of a forward-looking bent from locations around the world. They'll be broadcasting live from Austin on Saturday, with a crazy lineup of acts including provocative Chicago rapper Chief Keef and "Harlem Shake" meme inspiration Baauer.

Probably the most extreme live feed from SXSW will come from the Doritos #BoldStage. Housed in a sixty-two-foot-tall Doritos vending machine (seriously), the #BoldStage features a lineup that's heavy on vintage hip-hop performers like LL Cool J, Ice Cube, and Public Enemy. Their performances Thursday through Saturday are going to be streamed live on the Doritos Facebook page, and a promised iPhone app (which I can't find in the App Store yet) is supposed to let you experience the show in extreme 360-degree video.

But probably the best way to stay up on the festival is through social media. People at SXSW love to talk about their experiences, and the #sxsw hashtag on Twitter is going to be blowing up nonstop all week. If there's a particular artist or music journalist whose work you enjoy, now would be a good time to follow them (I'm on there, too). They'll be your best bets for new music tip-offs, behind-the-scenes talk, and, as the festival wears on, hilariously sleep-deprived commentary. With them doing all of the exhausting legwork, you can get the best of the fest without getting off the couch.

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